April 02, 2014

Guinea miners in lockdown after Ebola deaths

Foreign mining firms have locked down operations in Guinea and pulled out some international staff, executives said, as the death toll from suspected cases of Ebola there hit 83.

Five new suspected infections were reported in the last 24 hours, the UN's World Health Organisation (WHO) said, bringing the total to 127.

Medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) has warned of an unprecedented epidemic that is testing weak health systems across West Africa, the Reuters news agency reported.

Suspected cases of one of the world's most lethal infectious diseases have also been reported in neighbouring Liberia and Sierra Leone.

The epicentre of Guinea's two-month old outbreak has been in the southeast, close to its main iron ore reserves. The country is also the world's top exporter of bauxite, the raw material used in aluminium production, and has rich deposits gold.

"Everyone is practising precautionary strict hygiene but there has been no real impact on production so far," a senior executive at a mining company told Reuters said.

The executive said he had been placed on extended leave, while other companies were preventing people from entering or leaving their mines.

Firms were more concerned by what was happening in the densely populated capital Conakry than in remote mining sites in the interior, where controls were easier to put in place, he added.

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Foreign mining firms have locked down operations in Guinea and pulled out some international staff, executives said, as the death toll from suspected cases of Ebola there hit 83.

Five new suspected infections were reported in the last 24 hours, the UN's World Health Organisation (WHO) said, bringing the total to 127.

Medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) has warned of an unprecedented epidemic that is testing weak health systems across West Africa, the Reuters news agency reported.

Suspected cases of one of the world's most lethal infectious diseases have also been reported in neighbouring Liberia and Sierra Leone.

The epicentre of Guinea's two-month old outbreak has been in the southeast, close to its main iron ore reserves. The country is also the world's top exporter of bauxite, the raw material used in aluminium production, and has rich deposits gold.

"Everyone is practising precautionary strict hygiene but there has been no real impact on production so far," a senior executive at a mining company told Reuters said.

The executive said he had been placed on extended leave, while other companies were preventing people from entering or leaving their mines.

Firms were more concerned by what was happening in the densely populated capital Conakry than in remote mining sites in the interior, where controls were easier to put in place, he added.